


el alba nunca vendrá (the dawn will never arrive)

by heresy_in_fair



Category: La casa de Bernarda Alba | The House of Bernarda Alba - Federico García Lorca
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Fate, Gen, Sisters, So here we are, but it would be so much worse if it was in spanish, i wish i could have written this in the source language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29718249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heresy_in_fair/pseuds/heresy_in_fair
Summary: Bernarda Alba's daughters live in a house that is more prison than home.The man three of them yearn for, Pepe el Romano, will kill them, but they do not know this.





	el alba nunca vendrá (the dawn will never arrive)

**Author's Note:**

> very short piece inspired by la casa de bernarda alba. we read it in ap spanish lit and i can't stop thinking about it. major spoilers for the play, and tw for death (in the play it's suicide, but that isn't mentioned here)

Bernarda demands silence, and her daughters know they must obey.

Their house is not just a house; it is a prison. Angustias, Magdalena, Amelia, Martirio, Adela. Five girls, five women. One house to sweat in and choke in and drown in.

This house will kill them eventually, they know this, and they take every opportunity to stay alive. Angustias talks out her window with a man, Magdalena falls asleep at the table, Amelia soothes her cheek on the cool walls, Martirio hovers in the shadows to uncover secrets, Adela twirls rebelliously in her green dress. They snap and snarl at each other, each afraid to be the first one to fall.

The man is not just a man; he is an escape route, a ghost, a dream. Angustias, Martirio, Adela. Three girls, three women. One man to seduce and talk to and watch and marry.

Pepe el Romano will kill them eventually, but they do not know this, so they do not protect themselves from him. Angustias plans, Adela acts, Martirio watches. They fight and cry and hurl insults at each other and it doesn’t matter, because it ends in tragedy anyway.

  
  


Angustias knows she is too old for Pepe, the sprightly twenty-five year old who goes clattering down the street with his horse shod in iron. She knows he is only after her money, that their marriage will be painful, that she will not satisfy him.

Angustias does not care.

Angustias talks of nothings with Pepe. She knows he is hiding something from her, but her mother tells her not to ask, and Angustias is nothing if not obedient. That’s always been her best trait, says her mother Bernarda: she knows when to keep her mouth shut.

Angustias spins the ring Pepe gave her around and around her fourth finger. The tears falling down her cheeks match the pearls on her ring. Pearls, the symbol of tears. It seems that no matter how close she is to escaping this prison, Angustias can never escape her birthright of melancholy and anguish. 

Angustias needs Pepe el Romano. 

Martirio knows Pepe el Romano has never looked at her. She also knows she will never get out of this house without a man, and Pepe is the most convenient.

Martirio has given up on love, anyway.

Martirio stalks Adela when she sneaks out to see Pepe, ambushes her in the hallways. She does not mean to make Adela’s life a living nightmare, truly she doesn’t. But is it not enough that Adela has found someone she loves? Is her younger sister lucky enough to be the one who escapes, too?

Martirio clenches her fist around the cross that dangles from her neck, scoring her palm. The blood that drips from her hand matches the bitterness that drips from her heart. Martirio is supposed to suffer silently, but she is tired of being a martyr.

Martirio pins her foolish hopes on Pepe el Romano.

Adela knows Pepe el Romano loves her. He has told her so many nights, when they are pressed close together and she can forget the reality of her life for a few moments.

Adela does not know what love is.

Adela sees Pepe in the wee hours of the morning, dreams of him the whole day through, jealously listens to her sisters planning for his wedding to Angustias. Angustias is so old and Adela is so young and she desperately needs to get out of this stifling cage of a house.

Adela twines her green dress between her fingers, moisture from the heat collecting in between her hand and the fabric. The sweat pooling in her palm matches the doubt pooling in her soul. Adela knows that the noble thing to do is to let Angustias marry Pepe, but Adela has never been noble.

Adela wants to love Pepe el Romano. 

In the end, Angustias does not escape. Martirio does not escape. Adela does not escape, and she doesn’t get love, either. 

Two rules were written in the fists of stars and the green of spring long ago. Rule number one: If fate decrees you stay a sister in a house, a bird in a cage, then that is what you must do. Adela was too young to know this rule.

The other rule is simpler: if you defy fate, you perish. Adela was too young to know this rule, but it caught up to her anyway.

Now that fate has caught up to the young sister who pined for liberty, Adela swings from the ceiling. Angustias’ heart drops and Magdalena sobs and Amelia’s mouth falls into an O and Martirio feels her blood run cold and Bernarda says “My daughter died a virgin,” because in this house the tongues of the town matter more than the death of the youngest daughter.

Adela hangs in the air. For her, the dawn will never arrive. 

The stars are bright splashes of holy water scattered across the roof of the sky, and Bernarda demands silence once more. 


End file.
